Understanding karma

It has been stated that to understand karma, the universe must be recognised as an organic whole.

If this were not the case, it's various parts could not act and react upon each other.

Take the human body as an example.

Through it runs a complex system of nerves, arteries, and avenues for the circulation of electrovital forces, intimately and instantly connecting every organ, cell, and atom with every other.

Let the foot slip and immediately the counteracting muscles seek to restore the balance.

The eye closes automatically if a foreign substance threatens to enter it.

The reaction is perfect because the body is an organism.

Further it is necessary to observe that every cell in this organism is an individual life under the control of a higher center.

In the case of a muscle, for instance, all the cells act together; and similarly in an organ.

So by a series of grades the cells come under the control of more and more highly developed centers up to the brain, and through that to an invisible center of intelligence which unifies and coordinates all the functions of this marvelous mechanism, making of it an organism.

Then the body itself is part of a greater organism, man himself.

Men collectively form humanity.

Above this are innumerable hosts of beings gradually mounting, each grade vitally connected with and responsible for the grade below it, and helped by the grade above it.

Thus we have beings above the human reaching up to gods; then above them, supergods, planetary spirits; rulers of solar systems; greater ones holding together groups of solar systems; up and up to a ruler of a universe and ever up to THAT, the Unknown, behind all manifestation.

Rivers of life connect all these infinite grades of beings, like a network of nerves through which run vital currents unceasingly.

And this mighty being fills all space, is indeed space itself.

Or we can say that space consists of conscious beings of infinite types interlinked and interdependent.

This concept may seem strange to many because unfamiliar, but let the mind dwell upon it and it will gradually become clear that unless the universe was an organic unit, it could not hold together.

The chaos which some of our physical scientists have imagined would actually exist, and there would not be the beautiful order and harmony which we have come to rely upon in those celestial

bodies which we see

We see that interdependence is a fundamental principle in the universe, and we shall find that this basic principle is worked out in all parts of the universal organism.

We have shown the human body as an illustration of it.

The atom, the solar system, the galaxy, all in their structure and their workings proclaim the basic reality of harmony and interdependence as the underlying, regulating principle throughout all life

Every action, then, every expenditure of energy, whether physical, mental, or moral, has its due effect upon this underlying harmony, this basic balance and interdependence.

Selfish thoughts or actions disturb the harmony and suffering in the near or far future results.

We see all around us those whose disappointments and struggles in unfavorable environments are the result of ignorance and wrongdoing in this or past lives.

The condition exists in some degree in the lives of all of us, for everyone has made mistakes in past lives, as we are making them now.

But, although karma is spoken of as a law, there is no lawgiver, no over-ruling entity, who decrees this or that.

Rather is it a quality inherent in the very nature of things.

The ancient teaching is that every action is the result of a previous cause, and then becomes a cause for a future action, and so on indefinitely.

This constant movement is not the outcome of blind forces, but a living stream of changes flowing from the thoughts, acts, emotions and feelings, aspirations, and desires of the lives which make up and are the universe.

G.W van P